Ratings: Modern Family Returns Strong, Is Good to Its Neighbors; CSI, SVU and Minds Hit Lows

The Modern Family ties are still strong, as the ABC comedy returned on Wednesday to 14.2 million total viewers and a 5.5 demo rating, dominating the night and dipping just a few percentage points from its year-ago opener.

Alas, that set up ABC’s Neighbors — which TVLine readers gave an average grade of “D” — for a solid debut: 9.3 million viewers and a 3.3 rating, up sharply from the Apartment 23 and Happy Endings launches, yet demonstrating lesser retention of its lead-in (60 percent vs. about 70 percent).

Leading off the night for ABC, The Middle drew 9 mil and a 2.8, down 7 and 10 percent from its previous premiere, while a Revenge recap special placed a distant third at 10 pm.

Elsewhere on Wednesday….

* On CBS, Survivor (10.2 mil/3.0) was down 11 and 6 percent, Criminal Minds (11.6 mil/3.1) dropped 18 and 24 percent and delivered its lowest-rated premiere ever, as did CSI (down 16 and 22 percent to 10.7 mil/2.5). CSI, however, was on par with its season finale, whereas Minds… wasnt.

* Fox’s The X Factor (9.45 mil/3.3) led the 8 o’clock hour in the demo, and dipped just 8 percent in the demo week-to-week.

* NBC’s Animal Practice (5.2 mil/1.4) was down sharply from its aprés-Olympics sneak preview (12.8 mil/4.1) and was down 39 percent from Up All Night‘s year-ago demo rating. Guys With Kids (4.8 mil/1.6) built on that lead-in, and rose more than 20 percent from its premiere. SVU‘s two-hour opener drew 7.1 mil and a 2.1, up a tenth in the demo from its finale but down 12 percent year-over-year to hit a premiere low.

Criminal Minds didn’t end the season on the tradtional cliffhanger so their opener isn’t perhaps as must see as usual. We know they’re all back with a new addition to the team. Thats certainly how I feel and I still have to wait for UK showing.

I am a huge CM fan but not a fan of JT. I have to agree with Linda. I gave it to the first commercial and turned it off. Everything seemed forced and without chemistry. As much as I love CM, I don’t think I can watch it with JT. While others will disagree, I think she is just “blah” and adds little.

I made myself watch it all and will give it a few more tries for the rest of the team but I didn’t like Alex and everyone just seemed to “forced” or something. I guess it was to introduce new character but it is way too early for her yo be the one “leading” the case.

“Criminal Minds (11.6 mil/3.1) dropped 18 and 24 percent and delivered its lowest-rated premiere ever… CSI, however, was on par with its season finale, whereas Minds… wasn’t.”
Heh, sounds about right. Get Paget back!

False. The Cragen cliffhanger was the only reason why I watched SVU last night and DVR’d Minds. Now that it’s resolved next week it will be Criminal Minds and Supernatural. I’ll check in on SVU now and then when the others are repeats.

Modern Family juggernaut just doesn’t seem to stop! I like the show, but it doesn’t deserve all the awards its getting.
Keep calm people! The Neighbors had its debut and its not surprising to see it post such numbers since a lot of people would be interested to see what it was about and with Modern Family as its lead-in, that was to be expected! It’ll be cancelled soon!
Can’t wait for Supernatural to start next week! The wait is killing me!

I agree. Modern Family has a fantastic cast and what not, but it’s little more than a clone of the office about a family. It’s far from original. There is no reason ALL the adults need Emmy nominations. Sofia Vegara is overrated, and Cameron is largely a stereotype that shouldn’t be celebrated.

I’ve given up on Criminal Minds this season. I used to be a big fan of SVU, but when the cast switched up I stopped watching. I did see the SVU premiere with Paget, and I really liked it. I’m going to tune in next week even. I just wish they would keep Brian Cassidy around!

I’m not surprised by Criminal Minds’ numbers. Don’t know what the adjustments will do to them (could go up or down), But if you look at Criminal Minds ratings for last season, three of the four highest rated episodes in both demo and total viewers focused on Paget Brewster’s Emily Prentiss character. These premiere numbers are close to the lowest numbers Criminal Minds got last season, episodes that did not focus on Paget’s character but on JJ or Erica Messer’s obsession with Beth. I don’t think the drop is attributed solely to Paget leaving, but CM has had two and a half years of uneven to downright bad writing and last year Erica Messer showed me she couldn’t run a show properly. I think some have just had it and Paget leaving was the final straw for them.

You have a great point there. I’m a huge fan of the show but it will be hard for me to watch without Paget because some of the best episodes from the past seasons were the ones in which she appeared a lot. The last season was just OK because even if I really wanted her to come back after what happened Erica Messer didn’t take advantage of Paget’s return and she didn’t have as much relevance as in other seasons.

The problem of CM is that sometimes it appears there is a lot of people there who aren’t really so the characters are many times bad used.

I don’t think he was. I remember feeling pretty bad for him after he was pulled from the game. I can’t stand him this time around though. It’s okay though, I imagine he’ll be getting the boot soon enough.

Criminal Minds and Modern Family were great as usual last night. Tripplehorn is a good addition to me. Her character is a mystery to me, which I like, plus she has beef with Strauss, which I like even more. MF did a good job of the pregnancy introduction last night. Loved it!!

I’m wondering how many people missed the “new scene” during the final minutes of Revenge: The First Chapter. I’m sure it will lead off Sunday’s season Premiere episode, but I’m shocked no one has mentioned it yet – that I am aware of anyway….

I feel bad for CSI because, as the numbers show people are watching, and yet… radio silence. I can’t find anyone other than my husband to talk to about the show. I believe Ted Danson was an inspired choice to bring the show back from the brink of irrelevance and tedium that we suffered when the fantastic Larry Fishburne was on the show and the writers mucked it all up.

Where is the love for CSI, kids? Last night’s pick up from the cliffhanger was more tense than the cliffhanger of last season. The show is getting better each time I see it, thought I would argue this season Sarah needs to leave. I’ve had it with her. I’m thisclose to being convinced the actress playing her needs to go back to acting classes. Harsh, I know. Sorry.

I have watched every “CSI” from the beginning. I agree with you that Laurence Fishburne (his character created by the writing – not the actor) destroyed the show. Ted Danson and Elisabeth Shue have been great cast additions. Although, I do miss Catherine. I see it maybe getting one more season after this one, but I doubt it will go beyond that.

I give Modern Family a lot of crap for how cookie cutter it is and how much I hate that they dominate award shows, but I admit, it’s still the first show I fire up on the DVR when I get home on Wednesdays nights. It’s the best thing on Wednesday nights at least, I’ll give it that.
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Speaking of shows I give a hard time, I just watched those two New Girl episodes last night that were from Tuesday. I gave that show a really hard time for its first season and gagged on the thought it was getting nominated for Emmys. Well, I am already liking season 2 much more immensely than season 1. If they keep going the rest of the season the way those first two episodes went, this could easily be one of my favorite shows for the year. I’m so happy to see they stepped things up. I did always think they had potential, and I’m glad to see they reached it. I had to rewind and watch the leaping scene 3 times I was laughing so hard.

Neighbors doesn’t move to the new timeslot next week….nothings on next Wed because of the debate :( Wait 4 months for new eps and lose a week of new ones because Obama and Romney want to b@#$% at each other more. Sucks!